Florence softball wins C.J. Group I title

Mehrer fans 18 in victory

By: Sean Moylan
   Last Thursday at Susan Muchowski Field, Melissa Mehrer and the Florence Township Memorial High softball team beat South Amboy, 3-0, to finally win the NJSIAA Group I Central Jersey Sectional title they have so richly deserved all of these years.
   Mehrer no-hit South Amboy and the Flashes invented "the 3-0 blowout" in the process.
   After Mehrer blew away the opening batter there was never a second where one entertained the notion that Florence could lose the game. In fact, Mehrer fanned the first nine South Amboy hitters on her way to an 18-strikeout game. When one South Amboy batter fouled a pitch straight back, she drew cheers from her teammates. And when South Amboy’s leadoff hitter Kayla Larratta hit a soft groundout to third for the first out of fourth, she was greeted by a standing ovation. Melissa Mehrer was so incredible last Thursday that just putting a ball in play against her was cause for massive celebration.
   "I don’t think that I’m overpowering, although people say that I am," said the ever-humble Mehrer, who is one of the nicest kids ever to play for the Flashes. "It feels as great as I thought it would to win a title. But we still have two more games to win if we want to win a state title. I always get more pumped up when it’s a really big game."
   As dominating as Mehrer has been all season it was her first no-hitter, though she has had more than a few close calls.
   "I always mess up (the no-hitter) in the 6th inning. I don’t spin it well enough. But today (Thursday) I made sure I followed through," said Mehrer, who struck out the side in the 6th on Thursday. She walked just one batter and allowed a groundout in the fifth and a pop out in the 7th. Otherwise, she got all of the outs on strikeouts.
   "It’s always fun to catch her. I’ve known her since Rec ball. She has really good spins on her balls," said Florence’s sophomore catcher Chelsea Kehr, who felt Mehrer’s best pitches of the day were her screwball and her curve. Nonetheless, she made one batter look very bad on a nasty changeup.
   Although the Flashes were hitting the ball fairly well, they didn’t score until the bottom of the fourth. Katie Schreck started the rally with a one-out single and then moved to second on Kristin Garganio’s subsequent walk. Both runners then moved up a base on a passed ball. Mehrer popped out to the first baseman for the second out but that’s when Kehr (Mrs. Clutch) ripped a hard single off of South Amboy’s shortstop’s glove to plate Florence’s first run.
   "When I was running I took two steps and then I looked and I saw it hit off her glove. But I wasn’t that worried," said Kehr, who knew she would be safe and the run would score.
   Then in the bottom of the 6th, Kristin Garganio singled up the middle and Mehrer added an exclamation mark to the game with a two-run line drive homer to center field.
   "I was just trying to put the ball in play. I knew my team would be able to produce runs," said Mehrer.
   Florence head coach George Chwastyk was happy to see Mehrer hit a homer on the team’s last at bat ever on Susan Muchowski Field.
   "It was nice to finally get one after five times (in the championship game)," said Chwastyk, who has done a great job of creating a loose environment for his talented kids to shine in this season.
   Florence probably should have scored two or three more runs as Ashley Onori, Carlie Maple and Kelly Garganio each had singles and Schreck and Erin Sweeney each put down perfect sacrifice bunts for Florence in the contest. Florence, however, ran itself out of three potential big innings. Even so, the Flashes were trying to be aggressive on the base paths, which should never be penalized in the state tournament with runs at such a premium.
   Anyway, giving Mehrer three runs to work with is like giving any other pitcher in Group I 10 runs. But after the contest, Mehrer and Kristin Garganio, Florence’s great seniors who have both signed Letters of Intent to play college softball next season, were not going off to some post-game celebration. They were off to a National Honors Society Meeting to hand over their seats. They’re both such good kids that rooting against them would be like rooting against Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. But you could say that about a lot of the girls on the Florence softball team.
   Before Thursday’s contest, the Flashes enjoyed their usual pre-game meal of gummy worms.
   "In our first game Erin Sweeney ate a real live worm for three dollars. Now we all eat gummy worms before every game," explained Mehrer.
   So forget Wheaties, in Florence gummy worms are now "the food of champions."